
Pass LA Z^ 1 ^ 
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iii 



A Greater Kentucky 

A discussion of the Declaration of Principles and 
Aims adopted by the Kentucky Educational 
Association. This address was delivered at the 
Warren County Farmers' Chautauqua, held at Mt. 
Pleasant, 1913. 



1913 



DKPART:viEN'r OF Education 
Barksdalb HAMLEirr 

STTPERINTBNDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY 



A GREATER KENTUCKY 



BY 



H. H. CHERRY, 

President Western Kentucky State Normal School, 



BOWLING GREEN, KY. 



A discussion of the Declaration of Principles and Aims 
adopted by the Kentucky Educational Association. This 
address was delivered at the Warren County Farmers' Chau- 
tauqua held at Mt. Pleasant, 1913. 



vl% 



0,^ 



By transfe) 



c^^ 






A GREATER KENTUCKY 

by 

H. H. Cherry, President Western Kentucky State Normal 
School, Bowling Green, Ky. 



Kentucky has an area of 40,598 square miles, of which 
40,181 is land and 415 water. It has a population of 2,289,- 
905, and ranks fourteenth in population and thirty-sixth 
in land area among the states and territories of conti- 
nental United States. The 1910 Federal census lists Ken- 
tucky as the forty-second State of the forty-six in rank of 
percentage of growth in population during 1900-1910. 
From 1890-1900, the increase in the population of Kentucky 
was 157f.; and from 1900-1910. it was only 6.6 %. Forty 
of the one hundred and twenty counties show one-third 
actual loss in population. We ranked twelfth in popu- 
lation in 1900, and fourteenth in 1910. The largest aver- 
age growth in population in the United States during the 
period was in Washington, which shows 120.4%. 

This is a poor showing in percentage of growth in 
population for a great Commonwealth like Kentucky. I 
shall mention what I believe to be a few causes for this 
unsatisfactory growth: 

Lack of state-wide policy and unity of effort; too 
many idlers and loafers; too much politics; need of more 
leaders; cheap and rich lands in the West, and the need 
of Agricultural education in Kentucky; professional op- 
portunities in the West; bad roads; inadequate educa- 
tional facilities; our system of taxation; inadequate capi- 
tal for the development of Kentucky resources; and need 
of manufactories. 

"A great State must have vision, purpose and unity 
of effort. It must have moral, intellectual and industrial 
ideals and work to accomplish them. It must be affirma- 
tive and fearless." A State without a policy is like a 
ship at sea without a compass, and a man without a vis- 



ion. The policy for the development of Kentucky has been 
too indefinite, negative and vague. Our civic, social and 
industrial standards have been too frequently made by men 
who have appealed to the prejudice and ignorance of the 
people rather than by a consideration of the fundamentals 
of permanent and universal development. A State be- 
comes a vitalized, working, drawing, growing organism 
largely through the spontaneous life of the people, and 
this spontaneous life depends largely upon universal pro- 
gress and a square deal for every citizen. A great State 
is one where each citizen is fired by a noble purpose, is 
led by a burning faith, and preaches the gospel of work 
and efficiency by loyally supporting his State and by giv- 
ing to it a full day's service and a rational, sympathetic, 
constructive, growing life. A lofty effort in the interest 
of State unity and universal development is one that fun- 
damentally concerns self-regeneration and the training of 
every child in the land for a patriotic and efficient ser- 
vice. 

There are too many people who are knocking on 
Kentucky instead of talking for her. The great Western 
life is progress and unity; all who have been in the sphere 
of the Western spirit have felt its thrill and enjoyed the 
experience. Every citizen in the West is an informed and 
fearless booster of his country. His own community, 
city, county and State are always the best on the round 
world. No man can remain in the West and be a knocker 
without being branded by public sentiment as an unde- 
sirable citizen. The idle knocker is a parasite and a 
burden to any community. He interferes with progress 
and does nothing to improve life. He is usually against 
every movement inaugurated in the interest of the people 
and every man who takes an aggressive interest in the 
movement. He has no ideas or plans of his own that will 
develop the community. He simply complains, growls, 
and knocks. He occupies a chair in the community's 
household and, while he sits in front of its hearthstone, 
warms his feet, eats its roasted apples, and enjoys its 
fellowship and hospitality, he criticizes and makes no con- 
tributions to the moral, intellectual, physical, and in- 
dustrial life of his State. Kentucky is a land of optimism 
and opportunity, unfit for dead men and knockers and 
suitable only for live men and boosters. We should de- 
velop an aggressive State loyalty, a human atmosphere 



that will be a fire under the feet of every chronic kicker. 
We should build a guillotine out of public sentiment to be 
used on the neck of every reactionary and grouch. All 
of us like to live where the people have faith in their 
State, are talking for it, and are living busy, happy, patri- 
otic lives. Kentucky invites constructive criticism and 
work but it has no place for destructive criticism and idle- 
ness. 

We have too many elections and too much politics in 
Kentucky. Much valuable energy has been dissipated 
during our political campaigns, and the partisan spirit 
has frequently ruled when the fundamentals of human pro- 
gress should have prevailed. Our campaigns of abuse and 
vilifications have frequently paralyzed business, destroyed 
community ideals and cooperation. The holding of public 
ofifice, the drawing of salary and the control of party ma- 
chinery rather than a public service, have too frequently 
been the motive behind the political campaigns of Ken- 
tucky. These things have a devastating efifect upon the 
progress of the State as well as upon its population. 

Too many of our young men of brain and character 
who have the power of initiative are afraid to make a trial 
at leadership. The unworked and undeveloped fields of 
Kentucky call men to put out more boldly and to make 
a braver venture of their faith, to stop dabbling in the 
shoals of life when they are called to the great sea to 
meet the breakers, to feel the swells, and to experience 
the thrill that comes from the larger leadership. Too 
manj' of us have been fishing in minnow holes. When I 
was a boy I used a minnow hook, a thread, and a worm 
and fished in a hole of water about two feet deep that was 
under the roots of a sycamore tree that stood by the 
bank of a creek. Only minnows inhabited this hole of 
water. A person may fish in this place all his life and he 
would never catch anything but a minnow. If he does 
not go to the larger waters he will never know the dififer- 
ence between the thrill that comes from the feeble tug 
of a minnow and the thrilling pull of a two pound bass. 
Many of us have not experienced the pleasure and the 
profit that come from making three blades of grass grow 
where only one grows now, from a self-challenge, a self- 
discovery, and finally from a complete use of all our facul- 
ties. Too many of our young people withdraw from school 



before they are prepared for the higher duties of life and 
afterwards become mere human machines. They may be 
managers, workmen on farms, in the factories, drivers of 
delivery wagons, clerks, bookkeepers, agents for var- 
ious interests and subordinates in other positions when 
they are by nature leaders who should be at the head of 
institutions, farms and enterprises of all kinds. Kentucky 
needs leaders of vision and nerve in all of the divisions 
of human activity who fully value the opportunities offered 
by Kentucky and are willing to become civic and social 
pioneers and directors in industrial progress. While we 
solicit and cordially welcome the energy and money of 
other States to work with us, we at the same time insist 
that we should not forget that the responsibility of owner- 
ship and of leadership inherently falls heavily upon us 
and that our children are entitled to their share of the 
wealth of our fields, hills and mountains. 

I speak as a Kentuckian who was born and reared in 
humble and almost obscure life among the rural hills of 
our State, as one who has given the best efforts of his 
life to his native State and to the work of ennobling, en- 
riching and enlarging human activity in our Common- 
wealth. I love every inch of Kentucky life and soil. 
Nature has endowed our people with ability and leader- 
ship. I do not believe that God has a favorite; but if He 
has. it is the Kentuckian. I believe there are by nature 
more great men and women to the square inch in Ken- 
tucky's population than can be found among an equal 
number of people in any other Commonwealth. The 
names of Kentucky's illustrious sons are written on al- 
most every page of history that has been recorded since 
Daniel Boone first found his way into the Kentucky 
wilderness. Kentucky gave to the country a Clay whose 
logic and oratory instructed and charmed the world. 
She numbers among her distinguished sons a Breckin- 
ridge, a Marshal, a Prentiss, a Lincoln, a Crittenden, a 
Hardin, and many more of the most brilliant lights known 
in American history. She has furnished governors, con- 
gressmen, judges, industrial leaders, and great men in all 
walks of life, to other States. Kentucky, however, is 
charged by some with having depended during recent 
years upon her reputation. She is charged with having 
been asleep and with a failure to use her opportunities, 
but all of us now agree that the sun shines bright today 

6 



in our "Old Kentucky Home." I believe Kentucky will 
some day occupy the first place among the Common- 
wealths of the nation. If I had the time, I would enjoy 
speaking of Kentucky's history and telling about her 
achievements and the lives of her illustrious sons, but it is 
now more important to ask where are the men who will 
in future years blaze the way to higher civilization in all 
the divisions of human activity. The future citizen is the 
child of today. The child of today is the Kentucky of 
tomorrow. Noble childhood will rise in its glory and be 
the Greater Kentucky, the greater leadership, the greater 
spiritual and industrial pioneer when we reach, train, and 
inspire the children of the Commonwealth to noble deeds 
and action. 

Cheap and rich land in the West has induced many 
people to leave our State. There are thousands of Ken- 
tuckians in the Western States. They tell us that almost 
one-third of the population of Oklahoma is composed of 
Kentuckians. Many have left our State and are farming 
in the West because they were not informed as to the 
possibilities of the soil of our own State. They wore 
out the land because they did not know better and left 
it because they did not know how to restore it, and went 
West in order to have rich and productive land to culti- 
vate. There are men who have lived in four, five or six 
different States; they have taken fifty years to cross the 
continent; they have pursued the plan of going to a new 
country and remaining as long as the land was produc- 
tive, and then moving into another State. They have 
taken from the land without giving to it. They have been 
robbers of the soil without knowing it. Kentucky lands 
have been bled; and if we expect to bring the people 
into Kentucky and to hold those we have, we must not 
only instruct the people in the practical methods of cul- 
tivation, but we must train them in the methods of re- 
storing the land to its original productivity. An intelli- 
gent stimulation and instruction in the Agricultural fields 
of Kentucky will do much toward the development of a 
permanent and stable commerce and population. 

The opening up of great Western Commonwealths, 
the building of cities, the establishment of commerce, the 
cultivation of the broad and rich acreage of the West, the 
organization of schools and churches and other enter- 
prises, have created many opportunities for the profes- 

7 



sional man, and many of our leaders in the professional 
walks of life have left our State. We read almost daily 
of the brilliant careers of former Kentuckians who are now 
leaders in public life in the West. 

Some roads in Kentucky are as fine as can be found 
in any State in the union, but good roads are confined to 
a very small part of the territory of the State. The people 
do not realize the value of good roads. The mud tax falls 
heavily upon them and frequently defeats them in their 
desires to succeed and to build up a thrifty community. 
Many of them oppose any effort to have good roads be- 
cause they do not know the economic, social and indus- 
trial value of well-constructed and maintained public 
highways. 

"We know that good roads, like good streets, make 
habitation along them most desirable; they enhance the 
value of farm lands, facilitate transportation, and add un- 
told wealth to the producers and consumers of the coun- 
try; they economize time, give labor a lift and make 
millions in money; they save wear and tear and worry 
and waste; they beautify the country and bring it in 
touch with the city; they aid the social and religious and 
educational and industrial progress of the people; they 
make better homes and happier firesides; they are the ave- 
nues of trade and transportation of marketable products — 
the maximum burden at the minimum cost; they are the 
ligaments that bring the country together in thrift and in- 
dustry and intelligence and patriotism; they promote so- 
cial intercourse, prevent intellectual stagnation, and in- 
crease the happiness and prosperity of our producing 
masses; they contribute to the greatness of the city and 
the glory of the country, give employment to our idle 
workmen, distribute the necessaries of life — the products of 
the fields and the forests and the factories — encourage en- 
ergy and husbandry, inculcate love for our scenic wonders, 
and make mankind better and happier." 

"The State that has the men has the present, and the 
State that has the schools has the future. A great com- 
monwealth can not be bestowed; it must be achieved 
through education." Our Coinmonwealth's idealization of 
education is the result of the law of self-preservation. It 
recognizes its own being as an organism composed of spir- 
itual atoms that are capable of growth or degeneration, in- 



telligent patriotism or anarchy. It is natural for our gov- 
ernment to idealize an intelligent, active, rational, aggres- 
sive citizen. It takes a full-grown mind to reach and a 
full-growrn heart to feel a full-grown democracy. "It will 
take full-grown citizens to make a full-grown Kentucky, 
and a full-grown school system developed to the highest 
degree of social and industrial efficiency to make full- 
grown citizens." Our noble boys and girls stand by our 
side armed with ability and nerve ready to accomplish the 
larger Kentucky, if we will only give them an opportunity. 
We greet childhood today and recognize a patriotic call for 
education and more abundant education, ideas and more 
noble ideas, more government by the teacher and less 
government by the policeman, more government by the 
school-house and less government by the military camp, 
more and better schools and fewer jails and penitentiaries, 
more scholars and fewer criminals, more freemen and 
fewer slaves, more life and still more life. We need more 
life, and every patriot will join in the great work of putting 
at the door of every child in the land a modern school-house 
with equipment and sanitation, a democratized course of 
study, and a teacher of scholarship, character and person- 
ality. We believe in a State policy and efficiency that will 
ring the moral, intellectual and industrial "rising bell" in 
the life of every child in our land. 

The Kentucky school of tomorrow will treat Kentucky 
conditions. The courses of study will be built upon the 
twenty-two hundred thousand human heads, human hearts 
and human bodies of our State. The inalienable educa- 
tional rights of every individual will be considered. The 
home, the kitchen, the shop, the factory, the farm, the pub- 
lic highway and community will become laboratories for 
the school. "The school will be culturalized, socialized, in- 
dustrialized, vocationalized, and democratized." It will 
improve the productive capacity of all the people, and, at 
the same time, vitalize wealth with the spirit of service; it 
will diffuse wealth among all the people, not letting it get 
into the hands of the few; it will take poverty and misery 
out of the home and fill it with life; it will be a school "of 
the people, by the people, and for the people;" 
it will be the most vital organ of the community 
body, "the source of the currents of life — a fountain of 
democracy." 

9 



Kentucky as a State can not be indicted for a lack of 
liberality or interest in education. The ad valorem tax for 
the State of Kentucky is fifty cents for every hundred dol- 
lars of taxable property. More than one-half of this is ex- 
pended annually for the common school system. Ken- 
tucky as a State has been liberal in providing for the com- 
mon schools. Most of the rural schools of Kentucky prior 
to the enactment of the new and progressive lavi^s of 1906. 
1908, 1910, 1912 depended almost entirely upon the State 
for their support; and, as a result, the people of the local 
communities withdrev^^ their interest and the schools failed 
to accomplish proper educational results. Great progress 
is now being made in the development of a modern school 
system. The course of study is being vitalized; the teacher 
is better qualified and the physical conditions are being 
improved. 

The following statistics given out recently by the De- 
partment of Education are eloquent of progress: 

"In 1910 the census of white children was 528,712; in 
1912, 527,336; a decrease of 376 children in the State. It 
is probable that this decrease is more apparent than real 
and is due to a more accurate census. In 1910 the enroll- 
ment in white schools was 385,415; in 1912, 413,094; an in- 
crease of 28,679, or nearly eight per cent. In 1910 the 
average daily attendance was 115,323; in 1912, 229,631; an 
increase of 74,308, or nearly fifty per cent. This is a re- 
markable showing and most gratifying." 

The most serious indictment that can be justly regis- 
tered against Kentucky is her failure to organize the edu- 
cational agencies of the State in the interest of economy 
and efficiency, and to bring the State's educational busi- 
ness under an effective system of administration. Recent 
General Assemblies, the Department of Education, and 
educators and laymen, however, have been working on 
this problem and have accomplished marvelous results, 
and are now looking to the future for greater achieve- 
ments. Kentucky for many years made the monstrous 
error of turning over to incompetent hands millions and 
millions of dollars from the State Treasury without ex- 
acting an educational standard or without ofifering a plan 
for an effective administration of the fund. As a result, 
millions of dollars were wasted on incompetent teachers, 
poor school-houses, inadequate and antiquated equipment 

10 



and a small, vacillating and uncertain attendance. The 
fundamental task before the men who are directing our 
State's system of education are these: 

1. "To bring together all the educational agencies in 
the State into a system of educational machinery organ- 
ized in the interest of economy and efficiency." 

2. "To devise and get enacted a body of revenue law 
which will provide for all educational and governmental 
purposes funds that will be adequate in amount and stable 
in character." 

3. "To bring the State's educational business under 
an effective system of administration." 

These three tasks are so intimately related that the 
working out of any satisfactory scheme for financiering the 
business will involve the working out of a scheme for its 
organization and administration. These three tasks are 
m fact but three aspects of one constructive work. Much 
has already been done in this direction, and the State is 
getting much greater returns for eyery dollar it is invest- 
ing in education. 

I do not believe there is any one thing so contagious 
in a community as a good school. People will not often 
leave a community where there is a good school, but many 
will move into it in order to have the educational advan- 
tages it offers. A good road leading to a good school in 
every community in Kentucky would double her popula- 
tion and wealth. 

I believe the present tax system of Kentucky is one of 
the greatest barriers in the way of development. The pre- 
liminary report of the tax commission shows that this is 
a vital question that demands the immediate attention of 
our people. We are not likely to have uniform, efficient, 
and just development in our State until a new tax system 
is established. Men who have given the question careful 
study believe that our system of taxation has paralyzed 
business and kept capital from investing in the State, and 
has in this way greatly affected our population. Time will 
not permit a discussion of this important question. 

More capital is needed to develop Kentucky. "Work- 
ing capital is the foundation stone for commercial enter- 
prise." Kentucky reports in 1913. $243,046,747.66 banking. 

11 



This includes capital stock, surplus, undivided profits, 
banking houses, furniture and fixtures, and other assets. 
The total deposits in 1913 was $145,028,585.16. The city 
of Pittsburg alone has a banking capital of $150,000,000 
and deposits amounting to $350,000,000. The deposits in 
the savings banks of Kentucky amounted to approximately 
$18,000,000, while Maryland had $86,000,000, and Massachu- 
setts $761,000,000. What a tremendous impetus would be 
given to business in our State, if she had in her savings 
banks $761,000,000 to be distributed in the arteries of com- 
merce. 

We are told that the largest undeveloped coal field in 
the world lies largely in Kentucky. It is estimated that 
almost twenty billion tons of coal lie imbedded in the 
mountains of our Commonwealth, enough to supply the 
demands of the entire United States for hundreds of years; 
but, notwithstanding this vast coal area and other inex- 
haustible material resources and unsurpassed fields for the 
manufacturing business, we continue to ship our coal and 
our raw material to the manufactories of other States and 
spend millions of dollars for the product made from the 
raw material by these factories. Instead of permitting our 
people to go to other States to help run their factories, we 
should offer them employment at home and help to supply 
the markets of the world with the finished manufactured 
article. This condition will continue until we appreciate 
and use our opportunities. Take the automobile business, 
for example. Detroit claims forty automobile factories, 
which takes from Kentucky a large amount of money. 
What is true with the automobile business is true with 
other things. 

With the exception of Texas, Kentucky leads the 
South in natural resources. It has a land area of 25,715,840 
acres that is worth on an average of $21.83 per acre. It 
has 259,189 farms, with an average of 85 6-10 acres each. 
Of this number, 245,499 are operated by native whites, 1,956 
by foreign-born whites, and 11,730 by negroes. Of the 
native white farmers, 33.3 per cent are tenants. While of 
the foreign born only, 13.4 per cent are tenants. Among 
the non-white farmers, the tenants constitute nearly one- 
half of the total number. All the farms, including foreign 
property, are valued at $773,789,770, an average of $2,986 
per farm. The owners of the farms operate 171,325 of 
them, and 87,860 are operated by tenants. There are 33.099 

12 



mortgaged farms in our State. In 1890, 4.1 per cent, of the 
farms in Kentucky were mortgaged; in 1900, 15.2 per cent.; 
and in 1910, 19.5 per cent. This shows a tremendous in- 
crease in the number of loans placed upon the farms of 
our State. Seventy-five and seven tenths per cent., or 
about 1,717,428 people of Kentucky, live in the rural sec- 
tions and pursue agricultural pursuits. 

This statistical statement shows that almost four-fifths 
of Kentucky is rural, and that the most vital question be- 
fore our State is the one looking to rural improvement and 
efficiency. We have a gigantic rural inheritance and op- 
portunity. We have the climate, the shower, the sunshine, 
the soil, and the people, but we are not producing enough. 
Our earning capacity is less than one-half what it should 
be. Most of our farm homes are in need of the necessaries 
of life, and modern equipment and improvement. Many 
of our noble women are subjected to biting hardships, and 
the children are deprived of educational advantages that 
will prepare them for their chosen work. 

The people do not need money so much as vision, 
moral and intellectual stimulation and direction, not only 
concerning things spiritual, but things material. The de- 
velopment of our State depends more upon the possession 
of information and constructive ideals and an appreciation 
of our opportunities than upon the possession of dollars, 
more upon an improved moral and intelligent effort than 
upon an improved physical effort, more upon a day's work 
that is vitalized by intellectual, spiritual and physical 
change and relaxation than upon physical drudgery, a dead 
day's work where only the hand and body are brought into 
action by the worker. The citizen who remarked that he did 
not subscribe for a newspaper and did not read because he 
did not have time to read, must learn that the reason that 
he does not have time to read is because he does not read. 
Every citizen, to the extent that he is able, should provide 
good books for his home, subscribe for one or more of his 
county papers, a leading magazine, agricultural, education- 
al, and religious publications, and for at least one of the 
great Kentucky dailies or weeklies, and other wholesome 
current literature that discusses the living questions of the 
time and the movements of the world. Millions of dollars 
can be made and saved and much human suffering prevent- 
ed and removed by stimulating the people to the habit of 

13 



careful reading, accurate thinking, and just acting. Most 
of our troubles are fundamental; they begin in the individ- 
ual. The people have not learned the inherent relation that 
exists between life and property, and that the soul is the 
ticker that largely determines the commerce of the world. 
yThey do not know that a poverty of life makes a treacher- 
ous commerce, and that economy must begin with the 
theory that "efficient training precedes thinking capacity; 
thinking capacity precedes earning capacity, and earning 
capacity precedes industrial progress. Extend the vision 
of mind and electrify the heart, and you broaden and vital- 
ize the fields of commerce." Build up the efficiency of the 
school, of the church, of the library, and all other agencies 
of like nature, and you quicken and enrich life and develop 
industrial thrift. We can pay ofif the State deficit, fill the 
Treasury, and meet the crying needs of the home and the 
community by developing in the lives of our people con- 
structive ideals, and by making them proficient workers 
and producers in all of the walks of life. 

We assist in solving the fiscal problems of Kentucky 
"by increasing the productive capacity of the people, by 
developing a citizenship whose behavior will reduce the 
expense for criminal prosecutions and make additions to 
jails and penitentiaries unnecessary, by developing a 
rugged honesty that will cause every citizen to list his 
property at its proper value, and by making every person 
a productive, honest, patriotic citizen who puts public in- 
terest above private gain. Every idler, every unskilled 
laborer, farmer, housekeeper, every unqualified preacher, 
teacher, doctor, lawyer, and every other incompetent work- 
man in every other human endeavor, reminds us most 
forcefully of a lost opportunity and of spiritual and ma- 
terial waste." Most deficits of all kinds begin in the soul, 
and they will exist as long as human waste exists. Our 
remedy is in universal righteousness and intelligence. 

When I speak of education, I do not mean something 
remote, something at a distance, but of life, constructive, 
poised, productive life that works and serves today. Edu- 
cation is life and life is education. I mean by education a 
poised intellect, a righteous heart, a healthy body, and a 
working hand in the home, on the farm, in the blacksmith's 
shop, in the factory, in the professions and elsewhere. 

14 



Spirit is the endowment fund of a democracy. The 
soul is the energy that is behind commerce and every other 
great achievement that enlarges and ennobles life. It is 
the great central power-house somewhere in the center of 
the universe that turns the wheels of progress. In fact, 
nothing has ever been accomplished by human hands in 
the outward world that did not begin as a concept in the 
world of mind. Wherever our eyes go, they behold the 
product of the spirit. Tobacco barns were burned before 
the blaze was witnessed by the physical eyes; Captain Ran- 
kin, of Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, was hanged before the 
rope was put around his neck; that riot appeared upon the 
fields of the soul before it appeared upon the streets of 
Springfield, 111.; that negro was burned in Texas before 
the fire was kindled under his feet; that ballot was muti- 
lated and the election debauched before the voter entered 
the booth. I am trying to say that the Commonwealth's 
house will be in bad order until the soul's house is put in 
good order by Christian education. 

"The most pressing problem now before the State is 
the one that relates to its fiscal affairs, to a revision of our 
system of taxation, to the establishment of the business of 
the State upon sane and democratic principles. The fiscal 
item is related to every move inaugurated for the improve- 
ment of life. This makes it one of universal interest. The 
education of the people is the largest business item con- 
nected with the management of the Commonwealth. The 
enactment of a measure that will improve the finances of 
the State and provide for the punctual payment of her 
obligations, would be more in the interest of education 
than in the interest of any other one department of State 
endeavor. Making needed appropriations to the educa- 
tional institutions of the State, to agricultural education, 
and to all worthy causes, is thoroughly in line with prog- 
ress and a patriotic and efficient administration of govern- 
ment. The responsibility of fiscal leadership falls heavily 
upon those men who have been chosen by the people to 
administer the afifairs of the government. We should give 
active support to any efficient and just method that may be 
advocated that will solve the fiscal problems and provide 
for the punctual payment of the obligations of the State." 

Every citizen in Kentucky should be active in support- 
ing a policy that will remedy the fiscal troubles of the 

15 



Commonwealth and put her where she can pay her obli- 
gations punctually as they fall due. 

It is a mistake, however, for us to think for a moment 
that our State is a bankrupt. Kentucky's deficit is to the 
State about what a hundred-dollar debt would be to a 
citizen who owns one thousand acres of rich bluegrass 
land. Taken as a whole, there is not a State in the Union 
that is in finer condition; she has inexhaustible resources 
and no bonded indebtedness. 

Tennessee, with an assessable property of $506,005,366, 
has a bonded indebtedness of .$11,400,000; Alabama, with 
an assessable property of $561,521,193, has a bonded in- 
debtedness of $9,057,000; Georgia, with an assessable prop- 
erty of $681,608,608, has a bonded indebtedness of $6,834,- 
202; South Carolina, with an assessable property of $287,- 
132,019, has a bonded indebtedness of $6,528,485; North 
Carolina, with an assessable property of $639,713,962, has 
a bonded indebtedness of $7,539,000; Virginia, with an as- 
sessable property of $579,565,539, has a bonded indebted- 
ness of $24,986,959; Louisiana, with an assessable property 
of $544,820,340, has a bonded indebtedness of $11,108,300; 
Massachusetts has a bonded indebtedness amounting to 
$116,234,162; New York has a bonded indebtedness amount- 
ing to $79,730,630; Kentucky, with an assessable property 
of $846,454,020, owes a deficit variously estimated to be 
somewhere between $2,000,000 and $2,500,000. 

We must put Kentucky's latent, constructive ability to 
work if we would build up a great commonwealth. We can 
not succeed in this effort by hampering and crippling those 
institutions and agencies, of whatever name, created to 
educate citizens and to stimulate intelligent activity. Rus- 
kin said: "There is only one cure for public distress, and 
that is public education directed to make men more 
thoughtful, merciful and just." Lord Macauley wrote: 
"For every pound you save in education, you will spill five 
in prosecutions, in prisons, in penal settlements." Thomas 
Jefiferson wrote: "If the children are untaught, their ignor- 
ances and vices will, in the future, cost us much dearer in 
their consequences than it would have done in their cor- 
rection by good education." If there is a peril in Ken- 
tucky, or any other State, it is the peril of penny ideas, the 
peril of incompetency, the peril of superstition, and the 
peril of ignorance. 

16 



With a little efifort, we can double the earning capacity 
of our people; and when we do this, we will have more 
money for the necessaries of life, for the comforts of home, 
for the building of railroads, for churches, for education, 
and for private and public improvements of all kinds. We 
must produce more and then we will have more to spend 
for ourselves and more to give away, and more for the 
current expenses of our government. 

I heard the lamented Seaman A. Knapp, the great 
rural uplift champion and worker, say that if he could in- 
struct each farmer in Kentucky for twenty minutes in the 
simple fundamentals of corn culture, and if they would 
faithfully do what he asked them to do, he could increase 
the annual corn yield five bushels per acre. This would 
increase the annual corn yield of the State 18,000,000 bush- 
els; and at sixty cents per bushel, the increase would be 
worth $10,800,000, enough to pay the deficit in the Treas- 
ury of Kentucky about four or five times; and enough, if 
transmuted into private and public improvement and into 
human efficiency, to solve many of the vital problems of 
life and to meet many of the industrial needs of our State. 
This twenty minutes is one of Kentucky's educational and 
financial opportunities which will be lost to the State un- 
less saved through the education of its people. An oppor- 
tunity of this kind certainly justifies an appropriation of a 
few thousand dollars to the educational agricultural inter- 
ests of the State. 

We planted in 1911, 3,500,000 acres of corn. Ohio 
planted a larger acreage. If Kentucky had made as much 
on each acre as Ohio, her yield would have been 43,200,000 
bushels larger than it was; and at the rate of sixty cents 
per bushel, this increase would have been worth $25,820,000 
to our Commonwealth — enough to pay the Kentucky de- 
ficit nine or ten times. If the yield in Kentucky had been 
as large as the average yield of Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania combined, our in- 
crease would have been 57,600,000 bushels, worth $34,560,- 
000. If our yield had been as large per acre as Indiana, 
our corn crop, on the same acreage, would have been 
worth $21,500,000 more than it was. An increase of four 
bushels per each acre of wheat planted in Kentucky would 
be worth $3,120,000 to the State. If Kentucky had pro- 

17 



duced as many potatoes to the acre as the average of all 
the New England States, her yield would have been more 
than twice as large as it was; and if it had been as large 
as Wisconsin, it would have been considerably over three 
times as large as it was. 

The leading crops of the State, in the order of their 
importance, if judged by value, are corn, $50,449,000; to- 
Ijacco, $;^9,869,000; hay and forage, $10,306,000; potatoes, 
$2,724,000; and oats, $1,216,000; making a total annual pro- 
duction of the six leading products worth $113,376,000. All 
admit that, with a little effort on the part of each farmer, 
it would not be difficult to increase the yield of these six 
farm products at least 10 per cent. This increase would 
be worth annually $11,337,600. Most people believe that 
we are not producing over one-half the amount we should 
produce; and that, with only a reasonable effort, we could 
increase our yield 20 per cent. This increase would be 
worth annually to the State of Kentucky $22,675,200. I 
want to say in this connection that the State's recent efforts 
along the line of agricultural education have already stimu- 
lated the activities of the people and have increased their 
productive capacity, as shown by recent statistics in the 
increase of the yield of corn and other products. We have, 
however, just begun. Great achievements are ahead of us. 
Our greatest fiscal opportunity is in the land, in the mine, 
in the manufacturing and other interests. It is in Ken- 
tucky's natural resources; and our remedy lies in an in- 
telligent and honest citizenship- — a State's greatest asset. 
Childhood shows us the way to a greater Kentucky. 

"Any man who attempts to reform the fiscal affairs of 
the State by curtailing legitimately, economically and ef- 
ficiently administered material support to education and to 
the work of making a productive citizen, proceeds on the 
theory that the way to meet a deficit and stop a leak is to 
make the leak larger. He proceeds on the theory that the 
way to be rescued from a leaking boat is to sink the boat. 
He proceeds on the theory that the way to grow is to cut 
off the currents of life." 

I do not want to appear in this discussion as one who 
holds up only the commercial advantages that come from 
a developed and trained life. I put great value upon the 
spiritual enjoyment that comes from the blessings of be- 

18 



ing educated. Education would pay a thousand fold even 
if it did not pay industrial dividends. I am only empha- 
sizing that an investment in a good citizen pays two divi- 
dends, one in more life and one in more property. The 
first dividend alone justifies a supreme effort, for what is 
man in a democracy without noble ideas and a lofty vision 
but a slave? What is the true value of a State? James 
Russell Lowell, in his classic essay on Democracy, says: 

"The true value of a country must be weighed in scales 
more delicate than the balance of trade. The garners of 
Sicily are empty now, but the bees from all climes still 
fetch honey from the tiny garden plot of Theocritus. On 
a map of the world you may cover Judea with your thumb 
and Athens with a finger-tip, and neither of them figures 
in the prices current; but they still lord it in the thought 
and action of every civilized man. Did not Dante cover 
with his hood all that was Europe six hundred years ago, 
and, if we go back one hundred years, where was Ger- 
many, outside of Weimar? Material success is good, but 
only as the necessary preliminary to better things. The 
true measure of a nation's success is the amount that it has 
contributed to the knowledge, the moral energy, the in- 
tellectual happiness, the spiritual hope and consolation of 
mankind. There is no other, let our candidates flatter as 
they may." 

I believe in vocational and all other forms of training 
that will aid in living a complete life. I believe in vitaliz- 
ing every inch of Kentucky soil with human life. I be- 
lieve, all things being equal, that the citizen who produces 
seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre is a greater pa- 
triot than the one who produces fifty bushels of corn to 
the acre. I believe in an educational "policy that will 
reach the homes of the land, improve the productive ca- 
pacity on the farm, in the factory and elsewhere, and make 
the State rich in material things; but I would make the 
motive that prompts the efifort a love, a service, a moral 
enthusiasm that will stamp each dollar with integrity and 
give it a conscience that will transmute it back into life, 
into ideals, into freedom, into human efficiency. It would 
be better for us to die in a log hut and preserve our in- 
tegrity, our chivalry and human sympathy, than to die rich 
in a mansion and be a commercialized, selfish people. 
Neither one is right. The remedy is in the proper use of 
our inalienable life and property privileges." The State 
has no higher function than to take advantage of these 
great opportunities. 

19 






Svracuse, N. V, 
PAT, JAN. 21,1908 



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